


What Counts

by angelboygabriel



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Angst, Canon Setting, Hageneau, M/M, No one has died, non graphic sexual content, post Bastogne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 05:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12029151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelboygabriel/pseuds/angelboygabriel
Summary: The pain of surviving weighs heavy on everyone with breaths left to give. The only reconciliation with life Luz can find is in Toye.





	What Counts

**Author's Note:**

> hop on the train to emo with with me, guys!! inspired by Requiem from the original Band of Brothers sound track. 
> 
> As always, no disrespect intended towards any of the real life veterans. Based purely on the HBO portrayals.

Nobody speaks to them for a few days.

Nobody speaks it, no one ever really says _it was a close call, there was a dud, we almost lost them_. Nobody speaks of the way Luz, Toye, Muck, Penkala, Malarkey, Guarnere, and Lipton are even closer than before. (They do not speak, but count. Seven men, broken and cold. Seven men with nightmares. And fourteen unseeing eyes.) Nobody speaks of the hands Luz and Toye hold, of the looks Muck and Penkala share, of the way Guarnere and Lipton almost sway to each other.

Nobody speaks.

Hageneau is a dreary, battered reprieve from the hellish throes of Bastogne and Ardennes, and it is painted in more shades of brown and grey than George cares to count. Babe’s hair is burnished copper, Speirs has eyes the color of an Oklahoma thunder storm, and Joe Toye’s skin is exactly five shades darker than Luz’s when compared side by side. George thinks his laugh is too loud in the empty, creaking house when Joe unbuttons his shirt and pants and his moans are too harsh as this man, this soldier, this fellow survivor swallows them down. They fuck against a rotting wall then lay on the ground together, sharing a smoke.

It is not peaceful and it is not nice. It is rough and harsh but demands no explanation, and reconciles the sin that pools at their fingertips.

 

  
George is staying sane by counting things. He lost his count of breathless sounds, but there are three small explosions, eight men shouting, twelve minutes of just them, three times that Luz can't think, two orgasms and one Lucky Strike.

A mortar hit wails over the shack they lay in and Luz shuts his eyes. He doesn't care. The cigarette is stubbed out with his own hands and they find Joe’s.

Neither of them flinch as another explosion rocks the streets and almost shakes the house. They have both seen the face of Death, under the mask of a dud shell for Luz and a near hit for Toye. What is outside now does not scare them- they know what awaits.

George kisses Joe for the precisely twenty-third time that day.

“We’re _dead_.” He laughs mirthlessly as he pulls away and Joe’s hands frame his face. “We are dead, dead men.” he rasps, throat still sore from _fear, lack of use, lust._ Mortar number five rattles the walls.

He leans down for kiss twenty-four. 

**Author's Note:**

> hey!! if you have any prompts, requests, ideas, or feedback please feel free to drop an ask or such at my tumblr (which I'm still learning how to navigate) at calypsocharlie !


End file.
